How to Get Started Betting on Horses Online

To get started horse betting online, first you need to choose an online racebook. Many online sportsbooks take bets on the largest and most famous horse races, such as the Preakness Stakes, the Kentucky Derby, and the Belmont Stakes races in the United States, or the Grand National in the United Kingdom, but if you are serious about betting on the ponies and want the best odds on the popular races, as well as access to bets for the smaller, less well-known tracks, you will want to open an account with a sportsbook that has a dedicated racebook department.

There are several dedicated racebooks listed here at wheretobet.com. You may wish to start by clicking on the "Best Online Racebooks" tab in the menu bar, as that will tell you the racebooks that our users rate most highly. If you open an account with one of the books listed on that page, you can be confident that the company is financially stable, has excellent customer service, allows a variety of ways to fund your account, and has an easy interface for placing your online bet. The online racebooks listed on wheretobet.com offer varying bonus policies, varying tracks, and varying odds, so it will be worth your time to establish an account with more than one racebook to ensure that you always have the ability to bet on the specific tracks you want. Additionally opening an account at more than one online racebook will give you the opportunity to compare odds between the different books you have joined so you can be sure you are getting the best deal available for your betting dollar. As you are viewing the reviews of any of the sites listed on wheretobet.com, be sure that, just below the site description, "Racebook" is listed as one of the services offered.

After you have chosen an online racebook, you will need to sign up for an account. Most of the racebooks have very simple, self-explanatory application forms, so there is no need to explain the process in this article. Simply click the "Sign Up" (or equivalent) link on the racebook's homepage, enter your personal details, and submit the form.

Placing the money you intend to wager in your racebook is one of the fundamental differences between horse betting online and placing horse bets at the track or at your local off-track horse race betting facility. Obviously you cannot place your bet money right in the racebook clerk's hand because the transaction is taking place in cyber space. But as technology has given us the wonderful gift of betting online, it has also provided a means to transfer money quickly and easily over the internet. Almost every online racebook accepts Visa or Mastercard, and, for European clients, a variety of debit cards as well. For larger transfers, most online racebooks will accept checks, money orders, bank wire transfers, or Western Union deposits.

If you like to place bets frequently, and perhaps more importantly, receive your winnings nearly instantly, the fastest and easiest way to fund your online racebook betting account will be to use an online wallet. There are a variety of options available, all of which offer a simple, yet extremely secure means of opening and funding an online wallet account. Once you have an online wallet it is a simple matter to both place your deposits with, and receive your winnings from, your chosen online racebook.

Some popular online wallets are:

* Neteller (not available to residents of the U.S.A. or Canada)
* Moneybookers (not available to residents of the U.S.A.)
* Click2Pay (not accepting new applications from residents of the U.S.A.)
* Ecocard

PLACING YOUR ONLINE BET

If you have gotten this far, your are now OFF TO THE RACES, so to speak, and can bet the ponies to your heart's content.

Simply select your favorite tracks and/or races to bet on, click on the name of your favorite horse, and you are off and running! After you have attended to the simple matters of choosing a racebook, signing up for an account, and transferring your post up funds to your racebook account, the only thing left prior to placing your first bet is to understand the odds and bet types offered by your racebook for the races you want to bet on.

UNDERSTANDING THE ODDS

Odds are a reflection of a racebook's estimation of how likely a particular horse is to win a race.

Horse racing odds are usually expressed as X - Y. X is the amount won on a winning bet, Y is the required wager in order to win X. Dividing X by Y gives a ratio to 1.The smallest ratio represents the favorite.

A simple formula for calculating your payout is (odds ratio to 1) x bet amount + bet amount. For a base bet of $10, winning odds of 3 - 1 will pay $40.00 ($30 + the return of your initial bet), while 5 - 1 will pay $60.00 ($50 + the return of your inital bet). We will go through a more complicated example of 7 - 5 step by step, again using $10 as the bet amount. First divide 7 by 5, you get 1.4 (7/5 = 1.4). Multiply 1.4 times the initial bet amount, you get $14 ($10 x 1.4 = $14). Add the initial bet amount, you get a total of $24 ($14 + $10 = $24).

ODDS AND BET TYPES

The easiest place to begin betting on horses, in order to gain a workable grasp of horse racing odds, is with the straight wagers. The straight wagers are Win, Place, and Show.

SHOW is the easiest bet to win. The horse you pick needs only to finish in the first, second, or third position in order for your bet to pay.

PLACE is slightly more difficult to win than show because the horse you pick must finish in the first or second position in order for your bet to pay.

WIN is the most difficult of the three straight wagers to win, because the horse you pick must finish first in order for your bet to pay. As a win bet is more difficult to win than a show or place bet, a successful win bet will also pay muvh more than a successful show or place bet if an equivalent amount is wagered.

In addition to the straight wagers of Win, Place, and Show, there are a number of exotic horse betting wagers available, which we will discuss briefly. Needless to say, these wagers are all more difficult than straight wagers because they require multiple selections to finish in the proper sequence in order to win the bet. As such, they also pay much, much more than do the straight wagers based on an equivalent amount bet.

Quinella:

To win a Quinella you must pick the first two horses to finish in either order in a single race. Basically you are making a place bet on two horses in a single race.

Exacta:

To win an Exacta, you must select the first and second place finishers in their exact order. Many people that place bets on Exactas bet back up tickets or bet Exactas in what is known in the vernacular as a "wheel" in order to cover multiple possible outcomes.

Trifecta/Triacta:

To win a Trifecta you must select the first, second, and third place finishers in their exact order. As with an Exacta, you can bet back up tickets or bet in a wheel to cover multiple possible outcomes.

Superfecta:

To win a Superfecta you must pick the top four finishers of a single race in the correct order. Using back up tickets and betting a wheel as with Exacta and Trifecta is a possibility.

Pick 3/Win 3/Daily Triple:

Pick the winners of 3 consecutive races. You may add multiple horses to cover additional possible outcomes, but the more horses you add, the more expensive the bet will become.

Pick 6/Win 6:

Pick 6 is similar to the Pick 3, with the only difference being that you must select the winners of 6 consecutive races. The price for this bet rises very quickly as you add horses to your ticket.

Parlays:

A parlay is a bet where you make two or more wagers. You win if and only if all of the individual wagers that make up the parlay win. Generally, the more individual wagers included in the parlay, the higher the payout.

Win, Place or Show parlays are relatively simple to play and, because you are leveraging your bets, can generate a large payout in proportion to the amount wagered.

We will use a 3-win Parlay as an example, though you can do a similar parlay with place or show bets, or with a mixture of any or all of the straight bets. Say there are 10 races at a given track for the day. You want to wager on Horse #2 to win the second race, Horse #4 to win the fifth race, and Horse #1 to win the sixth race. If you decide to make a $10 parlay, you would place $10 on Horse #2 to win the second race. Horse #2 indeed wins the second race and you are paid $40 (3 to 1 odds). You place the entire $40 on Horse #4 to win the fifth race. Horse #4 wins and you are paid $80 (even money). You take the entire $80 and place it on Horse #1 to win the sixth race. Horse #1 wins and you are paid $480 (5 to 1 odds). Parlaying your bets allowed you to turn $10 into $480 on three bets.

Parlays are an interesting play when the favorites are at short prices. There is not much value in a $4.00 horse, but if you can find several and parlay your bets you can make it pay.

To finish off we would like to encourage you to search for an online racebook that meets your needs by using the Where to bet search facility.